Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Know Your Pantry


Last night, we made the Chicken Salsa Chili on our menu plan. While putting the ingredients in the dutch oven, we realized that there were no red kidney beans in the pantry. Jessica(my daughter) remembered that we had a can of black beans and suggested that we use them instead.

I never would have strayed from the recipe in the past. Having a daughter who likes to cook has taught me a lot. Now when we open a can of green chilies, we use what we need and put the rest in a baggie in the freezer. When we have another recipe that calls for green chilies, we break off what we need.

We used medium salsa in the recipe. We left out the crushed red pepper. We used three packets of True Lime instead of lime juice. Next time we make this recipe, we will use 6 packets. We also added 2 cups of sliced baby carrots.

The chili was really yummy. My daughter had never eaten hominy and informed me that she really likes it.

The next time you're making a recipe and don't have an ingredient, check in your pantry or fridge for a substitution. Having a well stocked pantry is what works for me.

Are there any tips you use in the kitchen to save money? Please feel free to leave a comment. I love hearing from everyone and read all my comments.

This post is linked to: Works For Me Wednesday

4 comments:

  1. That sounds really good! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Carli,

    That is why I blog...I love to share.

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  3. I often seem to be out of something, so I substitute, or add healthy alternatives (like 1/4 cup oil and 3/4 unsweetened applesauce instead of 1 cup of oil when I'm baking).

    There are great substitution charts online, too!

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  4. Hi SkylarKD,

    Thanks for the tip. I forgot about using applesauce in baking. I was really shocked that a cake mix I was using called for 1/2 a cup of oil.

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